Kell Brook compares Errol Spence Jr. to Jeff Lacy

By Boxing News - 04/20/2016 - Comments

1-Spence v Algieri_Fight_Ryan Greene _ Premier Boxing Champions2By Scott Gilfoid: In a clear sign that IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) hasn’t done his homework in evaluating how talented #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) is, Brook is now comparing him to former IBF super middleweight world champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy, who was beaten 10 years ago by Britain’s Joe Calzaghe by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.

Spence called Brook out last Saturday night following his 5th round knockout win over former world champion Chris Algieri (21-3, 8 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. At the time, Spence was going by the mistaken belief that the victory over Algieri made him the IBF mandatory challenger to Brook.

The International Boxing Federation dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when they revealed that Spence now has to jump through another hoop before he can become Brook’s IBF mandatory challenger. The IBF has ordered Spence to fight unbeaten Top Rank fighter Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KOs) in an eliminator bout. That might be a step too far though for Spence, as his manager is Al Haymon, who rarely does business with Top Rank.

By the IBF ordering Spence to fight the Top Rank promoted Ponomarev, they may have removed any chances for a Spence vs. Brook fight to happen unless Brook chooses to fight Spence with one of his two voluntary defenses coming up. I don’t think that’s going to happen, so it looks like Brook will be able to avoid the Spence fight and a potential knockout loss.

“He’s [Spence] still not heard of as a big name but he’s definitely showing he’s starting to fight and it will be interesting when he becomes the mandatory and we have to get it on,” said Brook about Spence to skysports.com. “But I just wonder if he’s got a taste of Jeff Lacy about him, this big hype thing – and look what Joe Calzaghe did to him. I don’t know but I have a feeling like that about him. But we won’t know until we get it on.”

It looks like Brook is making the mistake of assuming that just because one fighter turned out to be bad from one country and that other fighters from that country will be bad as well. We don’t know how good Spence will turn out to be. What I do know is that Spence looks better than Brook right now despite being four years younger, and he’s already facing better opposition than him.

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I don’t know if Spence will ever fight Brook though. Spence has options available to him, and he appears to have been blocked with the IBF’s decision to force him to fight the light hitting Top Rank fighter Ponomarev if he wants a crack at fighting Brook. I really don’t see that fight happening unfortunately due to the Haymon vs. Top Rank thing. What we’re likely going to see instead if Spence facing the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter fight or WBC champion Danny Garcia at some point.

Brook will likely be moving up in weigh to 154 if Spence does choose to fight Ponomarev. I do not see Brook taking the fight with Spence because he would be too strong for Brook. If Brook tried to clinch against Spence 10+ times per round like he was doing against Porter, Spence would force one hand free and nail Brook with shots until he either let’s go of him or drops to the canvas. I can’t see Brook electing to hold Spence all night long like he did Porter because he would pay the price each time he grabbed him.

If Haymon wants to do business with Top Rank to have Spence face Ponomarev so that he can get to Brook for the bigger payday, then we’ll see the fight. I mean, I do not see Ponomarev giving Brook any problems whatsoever. If Spence and Haymon choose to go in another direction rather than dealing with Top Rank, I don’t see Ponomarev being able to do anything with Brook other than lose.